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Sir Arthur Clarke and the Space Elevator

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Sir Arthur Clarke and the Space Elevator Sir Arthur Clarke and the Space Elevator Jerome Pearson President, Star Technology and Research, Inc. [email protected] ISEC Space Elevator Conference Seattle, Washington 23-25 August 2013 1 Sir Arthur C. Clarke 16 Dec 1917-19 March 2008 Royal Air Force radio and comm, 1945 British Interplanetary Society, 1946 Science and science fiction writer Sri Lanka and diving business, 1956 Comsats and Clarke Orbit fame, 1963 Space elevator research, 1976-79 Space elevator novels, 1978, 1997 Knighted, 1998 “Sage of Science Fiction,” 2000 2 Clarke and My Teenage Inspirations The “big three” of science fiction: Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke (plus Bradbury) 3 3 Arthur Began it in 1945 1945 2013 Arthur Clarke, “Extra-terrestrial Relays,” Wireless World 1963 416 active satellites in Clarke Orbit Syncom 2 4 Arthur Inspired Me on the Orbital Tower 1969 description of GEOSats on “imaginary towers” 1975, “The Orbital Tower” in Acta Astronautica 1976, Arthur begins our correspondence 1978, “The Fountains of Paradise” The Orbital Tower Arthur in 1964 5 The U.S. Bicentennial IAC, 1976 Great conference, and my first presentation on the Orbital Tower Met Robert Forward, Georg von Tiesenhausen (who suggested looking at the lunar space elevator, since the Earth elevator was so hard) Received Arthur’s letter, article, and questions on the space elevator 6 Clarke’s First Letter to Me, 1976 His paper addressed the collision problem He expected 104-106 objects Space Command now tracking 21,000 He wondered how to propel high-speed climbers Suggested power conducted through the tower, or radiation from solar power satellites He asked where to locate the base for stability He recognized the low geopotential point at 75° east longitude I replied, suggesting a horizontal base in Mexico, at the other stable point of 105° west Orbital pipelines and radiation belt absorption 7 Walter Morgan and Tower Stability Arthur asked Comsat Corporation for analysis Walter Morgan and colleague analyzed it Discovered the 24-hour north-south oscillation 8 Clarke’s Space Elevator Research Yuri Artsutanov Arthur discovered Yuri’s Pravda article, but didn’t meet Yuri until 1982 (seen here) Collar and Flower Arthur discovered their near-invention I found US authors who did the same Hans Moravec Discovered his marvelous “rolling satellite” I found Paul Birch’s “orbital rings,” Keith Lofstrom’s “launch loop,” and Rod Hyde’s “space fountain” 9 The Fountains of Paradise, 1978 10 Arthur’s Space Elevator Base 11 11 Buckminster Fuller and FOP Album Arthur did LP album of Fountains of Paradise Caedmon recording, with a cover by Bucky Fuller shown here Fuller designed a free-floating tensegrity ring-bridge in space above Earth’s equator, rotating at its own rate, allowing traffic to ascend and descend 12 First Chance to Meet Arthur Arthur gave plenary address at the 1979 IAC in Munich, Germany My asteroid retrieval paper was late Missed my first chance to meet Arthur in person 13 Lunar Space Elevator, 1979 Climbs with solar power by day, beamed power by night Climbing wheels Cargo Solar Arrays tanks • Tramway from polar ice deposits to the lunar space elevator • Climbs lunar space elevator to beyond L1 • Flies as spacecraft to Earth orbit using ion rockets • Returns from Earth orbit with Lunar Tramway supplies, again using ion propulsion 14 Space Flight Without Rockets 15 Reagan’s SDI, Clarke and Heinlein President Reagan’s SDI advisory group met at Barney Oliver’s “Star Wars” party in 1984 Heinlein, Dan Graham, Lowell Wood, Hans Mark, Arthur Clarke, and others attended w/John Paul II, 1984 Clarke strongly objected to Heinlein’s support Berlin Wall fell, 1989 Soviet Union “Evil Empire” collapsed, 1991 Clarke and Heinlein never reconciled, as Arthur retold the story to me at our meeting in 1996 16 Second Chance to Meet Arthur Sputnik 30th anniversary celebration, Moscow, 1987 Arthur was invited, but declined because of work I was invited, and offered free flight and hotel As an Air Force employee, I sought permission The request went all the way to the Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger Weinberger thought that it might be anti-SDI, and said that no DoD employees could attend Bottom line: in the military, it is better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission! 17 The “Space Elevator Boys” Finally Meet Sri Lanka, 1988 Singapore, 1996 IAC Bangalore IAC Beijing Jerome Pearson and Sir Arthur Clarke 18 The Search for Strong Materials Arthur followed carbon nanotube research Richard Smalley breakthroughs, Rice University Boris Yakobson proudly called me 19 Implications of Strong Materials From The Fountains of Paradise: Morgan uses fiber in handheld climber Mentions cutting trees with the fiber From my orbital tower research: SE material enables Single Stage To Orbit SSTO would compete with space elevator 20 Space Elevators and Orbital Rings Arthur’s 3001: The Final Odyssey 4 orbital towers 90° apart around the equator A geostationary ring of attached satellites He realized that a rigid ring like the one in Larry Niven’s Ringworld would be unstable I mentioned orbital rings in a letter to Arthur Paul Birch’s “orbital rings and Jacob’s ladders” Arnold and Kingsbury’s electrodynamic tube accelerator in orbit to catch payloads from Earth 21 Arthur Clarke and Extraterrestrials Arthur’s Fountains of Paradise has “Starglider,” an alien robotic craft going from star to star, that passes our sun while the orbital tower is being built, and communicates with Earth His Rendezvous with Rama has a similar theme But recent exo-planet discoveries raise questions 200 billion planets In our galaxy, Many of them billions of years older than Earth, You are here; And No One Has Called! 200 billion stars In our galaxy 22 Fermi’s Paradox: Where Is ET? The Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have found nearly 2000 planets Most stars seem to have planets Earth is just half the age of the galaxy Aliens could colonize the galaxy in just a billion years at reasonable speeds So Enrico Fermi asked, “Where are they?” He had 3 answers: 1. They exist, they’re here, and we’re in a zoo; 2. Civilizations destroy themselves or lose interest in space; or 3. Extraterrestrials don’t exist, and this galaxy is ours! 23 Accolades for Arthur Von Karman Award, 1996 Many Sci-Fi Awards Hugo Nebula Asteroid 4923 named “Clarke” There is an asteroid “Asimov,” Circa 1996 but “Heinlein” was taken “Sage of Science Fiction” Award, 2000 Knighthood conferred by Queen Elizabeth, 1998 24 Arthur Clarke, Selected Works Non-Fiction: “Electromagnetic Launching as a Major Contributor to Space-Flight,” JBIS, November 1940 “Extra-Terrestrial Relays,” Wireless World, October 1945 Interplanetary Flight, 1950; The Exploration of Space, 1952 “The Space Elevator: ‘Thought Experiment’, or Key to the Universe?” Plenary Address to the 30th IAC, Munich, 1979 1950’s Fiction: Childhood’s End, 1950; The Sands of Mars, 1951 Expedition to Earth, 1953; The City and the Stars, 1956 2001: A Space Odyssey, motion picture with Stanley Kubrick, 1968 The Fountains of Paradise, 1978 2010: Odyssey Two, 1982 3001: The Final Odyssey, 1997 1960’s 25 Space Elevators in Fiction “Prominence,” Curtis Brubaker The Last Theorem 26 Summary of Arthur’s Impacts Arthur was a giant in the science fiction world Many influential novels and awards Arthur was also influential in With Nalaka Gunawardene, the technical world of comsats Feb 2007 and Clarke Orbit Arthur was a tireless force in developing and publicizing the space elevator We lost one of our guiding lights with his death in 2008 Still working, Dec 2007 27 .
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